What Makes Your Child Tick?
by XxRandOm-Qu33NxX
Summary: There's something wrong with their kids; mentally and physically. And to make matters worse, something's coming for them. Can the Akatsuki find and save their kids in time? Or will it be too late? Rated T just to be safe.
1. Missing Links

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or the Akatsuki or any of the OCs except Kyo.

Chapter One: Missing Links

**Illia's pov**

_This overwhelming surge of helplessness has me quivering in the wake of my attacker. Yes, I as terribly foolish for falling into his trap, but I couldn't help myself._

_I guess I had become too assured in my mysterious rescuer, believing he would be there to save me every time, and so far he had been…until now that is._

_I pressed my back against the wall behind me and hung my head. I've decided to just accept the fate that my inane choices have brought upon me. I should have known better than to let the tantalizing thought of him finally seeing my putting myself in danger constantly was no more than feeble attempts to show the feelings that I have grown for him over time driven by the wild desire to see him. But instead of seeing that, it would appear as though I have tired him out._

_My attacker's bone-chilling laugh brought my mind back to. I raised my head, facing him with a look of complete terror as well as receiving; I prepared myself for what was to come. And just as I was beginning to lose all hope, a tall, dark, slim figure filled the void between me and the offender before me._

_The newcomer looked at me over his shoulder, capturing me with his pale-blue eyes, and said to me with the faintest smile-a smile that came from deep within his tormented, untrusting heart, "Sorry I'm so late miss, but no need to worry now. I'm here."_

_And just like that, I believed again._

Illia closed her eyes taking in a deep breath as she envisioned the scene within her mind, placing herself in the main character's shoes. Of course she would be in no harm's way; it would be quite the opposite. Instead of coming to rescue her from imminent danger, he hero would be saving her from the needless exhaustion of defeating such trash.

She let out her held breath slowly through her nose and reopened her eyes. Then it suddenly dawned on her: it as rather quiet around the base.

She leaned forward from her cross-legged seated position on the bed, and peered out into the hallway. She sensed no chakras. She was completely alone. She sat back with a slight tilt of her head, wondering where everyone had gone.

Normally her father would have let her know if there were any missions, and if not he then Shouta-con usually did.

She shrugged the thought off as she put the white place holder between the last read pages of her gold indeed book, and stood with a stretch. She headed out to the training grounds, feeling as though she'd let her mind wander in a fairy-tae land for far too long today.

**Kyo's pov**

The soft, cool, continuous movement of the water current underneath Kyo's backside as the breeze came and went, gracefully pushing the water to tussle back and forth was far more than relaxing.

She stared blankly at the large puffs of white clouds as they rounded by the bright blue sky gradually, without a care in the world. As the biggest she'd seen all day, a barking dog, came rolling by Kyo allowed herself to drift along the water surface, following it.

As the wind blew again, her ear twitched. She was being watched, she could feel it. She sat up slowly; keeping her eyes locked on the sky overhead and flicked her dampened hair over her right shoulder. The motion seemed so casual, though in all reality she had taken the hair-flick as a chance to glance through the corner of her eye, spotting the watcher in the bushes.

_There…under that small tree._

Kyo slid slowly to a stance, and turned her back on the unwanted guest and walked over to the large rock on the lake side that held her folded clothes.

As she got dressed, she shivered. She felt eyes on her still and frowned. _Village perv… _she presumed.

Once she pulled her pants up around her hips, she swiftly pulled a kunai from her pocket with her right hand and threw it under her right arm into the bushes behind her without looking. She smirked in triumph when she heard a thump and was standing before the bushes, shirtless, within seconds.

Kyo peeled back the branches, the sight before her throwing her for a loop. _A puppet…? _She thought as she looked at the wooden figure lying on its side. It's pale tan panted face turned towards her, the latched mouth hanging open.

She sighed, feeling duped and bent over to retrieve her kunai from the object, when she suddenly felt a sharp sting in the back of her neck and was immediately taken over by a heavy sense of dizzy sleep.

Her legs gave out from underneath her and she was caught by a pair of firm, hard as wood, arms. Just before her mind was fully succumbed to the haze, she heard a soft murmur of, "One down…one to go."

**Sora's pov**

Sora hummed a soft happy tune to herself as she sculpted her third masterpiece of today. She stuck her tongue out in concentration as she shaped up the tail of the creature.

Feeling satisfied with what she'd done, she took a step back to admire the sculpture. It was an oversized squirrel seated upon his hind legs, with his front paws holding up an acorn to his mouth.

Sora's smile changed into that of a smirk as the limbs and body of the squirrel began to expand grotesquely in sections and eventually it exploded with a loud bang. _Just as all art should. _

She began to hum once again and reached into her pockets for more clay to make another work of art, but this time bigger than before, when the snapping of a twig caught her attention.

She looked over her right shoulder, only to be jabbed quick and hard in the left side of her neck by the hilt of a heavy and large sword.

Sora was out instantly.

**Shouta's pov**

Shouta leapt from tree branch to tree branch following behind his father. He was a bit curious when his dad came and got him first thing in the morning, and very seriously, despite how normally goofy he always is, told him that there was an important mission he had to do and wanted Shouta to come along. His dad never said what the mission was and it killed Shouta but he guessed he would just have to wait and find out.

He sighed. He hadn't even been able to tell Illia they were going out and he always told her that. He just hoped that Illia wouldn't be upset with him for not sharing that before just leaving without a word. She hoped she would understand. Knowing the kind of person Illia was she would understand perfectly. They were best friends since birth after all.

"Father, are we almost there yet?" Shouta asked getting a bit impatient. They'd been running and jumping for hours and still they weren't there yet. He wondered if this would be a two day mission.

He blinked, quickly reaching out an arm for the thick tree trunk on the side of him and swung his way around it, perching on the side, using his chakra in the soles of his feet to stay put. He looked to where his father had suddenly stopped and was looking down at the ground at something. Without a word, he motioned Shouta over.

Shouta came as he was told and looked with his father down at the girl with dark hair making her way through the woods looking around as though she were lost. They weren't going to kill her where they? She seemed pretty innocent enough to Shouta.

His father looked over at Shouta and told him simply, "Watch and take good notes son, this will become very handy for you in the near future."

**Karin's pov**

Karin yawned as she stretched out, walking through the woods to the watering hole. Her sister had announced some time earlier that she was taking a trip there and would be back by dinner time. Karin had nodded and said alright. She didn't think much of it. She knew her sister loved taking trips alone to the lake and always made it back by or before dinner time. Only problem is, it was well past that time and Kyo hadn't come back home yet.

Karin knew that Kyo could take care of herself, she was very well certain of that, but she couldn't help but get a little worried about her. Being this late, or late at all, wasn't like Kyo, and as the minutes passed the knot of worry and dread grew larger within Karin's stomach.

She stopped in her tracks and looked around scratching her head. _Oh great…I'm lost. _

If Kyo were here, she would scold Karin for sure. They never seemed to fully understand how it was that Karin was such an excellent tracking-nin, but lacked a sense of direction. Kyo excelled in that department, always being able to get them exactly to where they needed to go in a timely manner, but once there, couldn't find who or what they would be looking for.

They truly were Ying and Yang. And right about now, Ying was missing her Yang pretty badly.

Groaning and just about ready to give up, Karin leapt up into the trees, climbing for the top. She figured maybe she could spot the lake from a look up above, however the sound of objects whizzing through the air changed up her motive and had her swinging around each branch to dodge the senbon being aimed for her.

Karin smirked in victory then let her features fall as she began to scope out where the person was who dare to attack her. She blinked in confusion as she suddenly lost her balance and gripped on the tree only to find that her fingers wouldn't securely latch on. She was soon free falling towards the ground with no way of stopping or catching herself.

_Poison needles. _She thought begrudgingly as she realized that she'd left her blind side wide open for the assailant who attacked her.

She soon landed her long fall in the arms of a man; she knew by the way the muscles cut in his arms through the fabric of his jacket sleeves. She looked into his one eye of the man to glare momentarily before passing out due to the shock from her fall and the poison.

**Scarlett's pov**

The screams and yells of anger and horror coming from the people in the small town on the outskirts of a nearby village had Scarlett on her knees laughing. She had just played another one of her self-amusing pranks that usually winded up others getting her. She watched as the people scrambled out of the little tea shop as the smoke rose from the hole blasted through the ceiling.

Hilarious!

She certainly had a good amount of fun today.

Pulling herself together, she stood up and turned walking out of sight and into the woods. (**A/n: **amazing how they all get snatched in the woods, no?)

She was thinking of another prank she could pull next when a presence behind her made her stop in her tracks. She looked over her shoulder and grinned a grin that would make any normal person shiver with fear. "Hi there, wanna play? The game is pretty simple. All you have to do is…" she reached into her pockets "lose your life!" she threw out some kunai and shureken at the hidden person only to have them deflected by their own.

She smirked and reached for more, tossing those out as well, enjoying herself as they kept deflecting them. She was so engrossed by her wild throws at the tress that she didn't notice the person sneaking up behind her to hit a pressure point in her back, making her fall asleep quickly and peacefully.

**Illia's pov**

I panted softly as I landed in a fighting stance looking as all my shadow clones disappeared from around me. I heard the footsteps of everyone coming in and tilted my head in confusion seeing the men in the black and red clouded covered cloaks come into view carrying people on their backs. Kids to be exact, around the same age or younger than me.

I spotted Shouta-con standing beside his father and gave him a look that meant I wanted questions answered later. He nodded understanding and looked at his dad as he told him something.

My father walked out from God only knows where behind me and said to the men before me, "Well done men. Now to wait until the kids wake up. They will be pretty upset I suspect so be on your toes with them. Put them in their corresponding rooms. That is all." He then turned and left my mother right behind him.

**A/N: **Whoo! Alright, first chapter done and done! That was just giving you a little bit of background info on each character I have so far. Can you guess who belongs to which member? One I made pretty obvious, and no the fathers did not kidnap their own children as you should be able to clearly see. Please review and tell me what you think!

**Characters and their respective owners:**

**Kyo-myself**

**Karin-miss89**

**Sora-Booberrry123**

**Illia sakurano-Rosebud130**

**Shouta-Charity**

**Scarlett-Rini**


	2. Meeting the Makers Literally

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or the Akatsuki or any of the OCs except Kyo.

Chapter Two: Meeting the Makers…Literally

**Kyo, Karin, and Illia's pov**

Illia stood in the doorway of the two raven-haired twins' room and kept her eyes glues on the paged held before her face. It had been a total of 10 minutes since she'd met with her father who told her to go and gather each of the kids as they awoke.

Figuring it would take less time, she made a few clones of herself and sent them all to a different room to complete the task, though she hadn't expected for all of the kids to be knocked out as hard as they were.

She heaved another sigh and glanced up towards the sure to be older girls sprawled across the bed, then back at her book. As she turned another page, she heard rustling. Someone was awaking. _Good._

Kyo shuffled as something twitched and slapped her arm repeatedly. She grumbled pushing the thing away and sighed as it stopped for a moment but it was soon back again. Frowning, she pushed away once more but was taken for surprise when it came back with such force it knocked her to the ground with a hard thump.

Growling within her chest, Kyo peeked above the edge of the bed to see her twin sister, Karin, now laid across the entire bed and sleeping peacefully. _Gah she sleeps terrible!_

Glaring deeply at the bundle of peace before her, Kyo took two fingers and pinched the nostrils of her sister's nose and just counted down the seconds. _3…2…1_

Karin was shooting up, gasping deeply for air and swatting at something was no longer attached to her face. Looking around in bewilderment, she found her sibling seated on the floor and looking at her with a satisfied and amused smirk. "Kyo…why you little…" she growled then as her eyes widened with apprehension, the last few strands of sleep evaporating from her mind, she gasped glomping her twin and toppling them both over onto the ground. "Kyo! Where were you? I was so worried! What happened to you?"

Kyo opened her mouth to answer all of her sister's frantic questions one at a time when she finally fully woken up and sensed the presence at the door behind her. She glanced over her shoulder at the young girl who was lodged within the pages of her book; Karin had stopped her ranting questions to look as well.

Illia closed her book and looked at the two teens before her. "It's about time. Come with me."

The sisters both looked at each other with raised eyebrows then back to the girl. "Who are you?" began Karin, "and follow you where?" Kyo finished.

"No one important, and to meet your maker."

**Illia and Sora's pov**

By the time Illia made it to this room, Sora had already been awake and looking around the room that she was enclosed inside of. She was up on her feet, taking a closer look at things with her now gloved hands. She blinked looking at them; she didn't remember pulling on gloves. Actually, she didn't really much of anything after a sharp blow to her neck.

Bow to the neck.

She had been knocked out. She remembered it now.

She was making sculpted in the woods when something caught her attention to the right then BAM! Nothing.

She rubbed her neck absentmindedly though there was no pain left.

The door of her room opened and she spun around on her heels seeing a girl around the same age as her walk inside. "Oh good. You're already awake. Come with me."

Not feeling like nor seeing the need to protest, she nodded and followed behind the girl, shoving her hands in her pockets figuring all her questions would be answered soon enough."

**Illia and Scarlett's pov**

Illia pushed open the last door and frowned with a look of slight confusion and…well she didn't know what the other feeling was but she knew it was pretty close to creeped out and right on the edge of disgust.

There was a sickly humming coming from this room and as she opened the door more a girl was sitting there with a weird grin on her face while she hummed happily. "Oh hi!" leaked from her purple shaded lips, "Did you come to play with me?"

Illia resisted the urge to sigh with restlessness and impatience. "No. I came to get you. You must come with me."

"And when we get there, will we play then?"

Illia let out her sigh this time. The girl had to be a year or so older than her but she presumably had the mind of an 8 year old. "Maybe," she said getting the girl to hush already with talks about playing, "Now come with me."

"Oookayyy." Scarlett sang as she hopped off the bed and walked out behind the girl.

**All the kids' pov**

All the Illia's eventually met up with one another, with their acquired targets following behind. The extra ones disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving the real one there ahead of the pack and leading the others quietly; her nose in her book.

Kyo and Karin were next in line, Kyo's arms behind her head while Karin looked over her shoulder at the little kids behind them. Was everyone here like 16 and under?

The twin's blinked hearing a childish giggle from the back and both turned to see the source of it. There was a girl with dark hair that had turquoise and purple highlights in them with very bright green eyes. Her lips were painted purple and her nails were black. She was sporting a jester's type outfit: the shirt green with pink stitching parted at her tummy, one button on her chest. The bottoms were black shorts underneath a holey black shirt with pink lace fringes. Her hat was black with three pink rings around the rim; her shows were thigh high black boots with pink lacing around the top and pink stitches up the side with a green jester's point at the toe with a pink ball.

Kyo upturned her nose. _Ugh…pink…and so much of it. _She watched with her sister as the girl harassed the one next to her about playing with her or some crap like that. That girl had white hair with blue eyes and was wearing a blue sundress. Verrrry fitting attire for a Shinobi, they thought sarcastically of course.

They sighed shaking their heads and turned back to the front.

Sora sweat dropped a bit as she shook her head continuously answering no to the girl's questions who just kept bugging her. Did she want to play? No. Did she like pink? No. Did she like games? No.

Question after question, Sora responded no, thinking it would make the girl leave her alone but she stayed persistent about it. With a irritated sigh she turned to the girl and groaned, "Please, just leave me alone. I'm trying to figure out where I am while attempting to stay calm at the fact that I've been kidnapped. It's not helping that you're drilling me though you clearly see that I'm not participating, so please leave me alone. You annoying questions are clashing with my ovarian auras."

Scarlett blinked at that last thing and tilted her head confused. Did she just say something about her ovaries? Her grin son returned as though it hadn't faded and she nodded. "Okay!" she said as she skipped on up ahead to the two older girls at the front. "Hi! Would you two like to play with me?"

The twins looked over their shoulders and answered flatly, "No."

Scarlett blinked and stopped walking as the group moved a bit ahead of her. She frowned deeply, glaring behind everyone as they kept walking ahead of her. "I will get to play with you, whether you all like it or not." Her voice now gruff and hoarse like almost.

She soon regained her composure and smiled skipping back amongst the group and stayed to herself.

Illia glanced over her shoulder at the two raven haired girls behind her. One's hair, the shorter one, was pretty long, stopping to her hip line and choppy-layered like with long bangs in her face, while the taller one's stopped to her waist and was neatly cut with bangs that framed her face on either side. The shorter one had blue green eyes while the taller had onyx ones. Both had the same pale/ivory skin and features that they received with no doubt in her mind from their father, minus the weasel like marks under the eyes. Their outfits were nearly similar as well. They were both wearing cropped cut black skin tight t-shirts that stopped right under their bust line. The shorter one wore a fishnet tank that stopped just under the t-shirt while the taller went bare. Both shirts hung off one shoulder-the shorter the right revealing a blue bra strap, the taller the left revealing a red bra strap. They both sported black bottoms: the shorter mini shorts while the other wore a shirt with red tights. The taller one wore the traditional sandles on her feet whereas the shorter twin had knee high black boots."Don't you think that was a little harsh, plotting to tell her no before she even came to ask you anything?" she addressed the shorter one.

Kyo looked at the young girl who topped her in height clearly, she had to be around 5'6. She had short black hair with blond highlights and orange eyes. She was wearing a long white cloak with gold leaves embroidered all around it. She shrugged. "Not in the mood. I'm trying to figure out what you could've meant by 'our makers'.

Karin nodded, thinking back to just before she nearly snapped on the girl, remembering that she had been knocked out and taken here. Karin thought that she was the one to do it, but Kyo reassured her that it wasn't and couldn't have been, so Karin had backed off and they followed like she asked them. "What does it matter to you? She you're friend or something?"

Illia nearly pulled a face. "Just like you both, I just met her."

Karin's eyes narrowed as she glared at the younger girl whom she topped in height, being 5'9. Was she purposely trying to test her?

Kyo sighed and tapped her sister's side, getting her attention, and shook her head. Karin nodded and puffed down and just kept a solid glare on the kid. "Who are you kid?" Kyo asked putting the acid in Karin's eyes to…nice words.

"As I said before, no one important."

Suddenly as she stopped to brown door with a red cloud painted on it, it opened and a man with a blond ponytail sitting on the top of his head and a bang that covered his entire left eyes peeped out; or at least Kyo thought he was a man.

"Yo, boss-kid. The boss is looking for ya, yeah." He said then went back into the door.

Illia turned to the twins who raised their eyebrows. "No one important huh?" they said together as the girl shrugged and lead them all inside. She motioned for them to line up in one line in front of all the shadowed figures, with nothing but eyes looking at them.

The moment Kyo set eyes on a pair of Sharingan eyes that were looking at her and her twin with much curiosity, nostalgia, and something undetected, she understood what the girl meant by maker, but as Karin yelled out, "What the fuck is this?" she could tell that her twin didn't. Kyo face palmed herself.

**Kyo's pov**

"This is a gathering, a meeting place for our little organization. This is the moment in which you will meet your fathers." The man in the center with the same orange eyes as the young girl in the white said.

There was a murmur of outrage among the kids, everyone but Kyo who stayed cool and collected as she kept her eyes locked on the red ones looking at her.

"Hold up!" Karin said breaking through the noise, "What the fuck do you mean father? My sister and I have no father! He ditched out mom right after we were born so I say fuck that wimpy, scary-assed bastard!"

Kyo had looked to her sister as the other two kids nodded their agreements, and sighed. She looked back at the man with the Sharingan eyes and saw he had closed them. As they reopened halfway, she detected a hint of remorse and sadness in them, but as they fully opened it was gone.

"That may be so, but your father is here now and he wants to make things right with you. All of you," the leader said.

Kyo looked while he talked, the girl in white moved to stand between him and another with blue eyes. A woman. The only woman in the room. _Those must be her parents. _Kyo observed smoothly and looked grazed her eyes over the others of the room. She noticed a man with only one eye standing with shaggy brown hair, tanned skin, one big blue eye-the other hidden by an eye patch- and a cute little round face. A child. He was pretty short too, but she could tell by the way he held his face, he was trying to look tough. Kyo found herself smirking slightly. The rest of the men had no one next to them.

"With that being said, I'll leave them to it." The leader said just as he, the young girl, and the woman stepped back into the shadows and were gone. The one eyed man and his son did the same, as well as a few others in the room, leaving only three men left. Red eyes, girl-guy dude, and someone who looked like his mouth and nose were covered.

It was silent for a long moment, and Karin, being who she is, became irritated first. "Well! Let's not all move at fucking once!"

"Karin…" Kyo said gently. She could tell that her nerves had been pricked the moment the word father was uttered. She sighed and looked back forward just as the man with the Sharingan eyes came forward and was standing before them in a blink of an eye. Just by looking at him she could tell instantly that that was where they got their looks from. "Come with me." He said coolly.

"Tch…" Karin glared crossing her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes but didn't complain. She was the first to follow behind.

**Scarlett's pov**

The whole time the man had been talking, Scarlett was just standing there humming, thinking off good first day on the scene pranks. Her eyes scoped out the area and the most of those in front of her that she could see. She spotted a boy wearing an eye patch. She tilted her head. A little boy playing pirate? She thought of making him her new play thing but he looked young, and feeble. She'll pass.

"With that being said, I'll leave them to it." The leader said bringing Scarlett back to what was going on and she watched as the room's numbers decreased quickly. She put her hands behind her back and rocked back and forth, humming a bit to herself as she looked through all the men.

She knew that she was to be meeting her father-that much she'd gotten out of it before she let her mind slip away to elsewhere.

She looked now at the me, trying to see who was her dad before any of them made a move toward her.

"Well! Let's not all move at fucking once!" the tall black haired girl yelled out causing a man with red eyes to appear before them in an instant and lead them out.

Scarlett watched them leave, and as she turned back around, a tall, muscular man with tanned skin. He was wearing a white hood and a black mask on his face with only his weird eyes were visible. They were green with no pupil and parts that were meant to be white were red. He had a Takinagakure forehead protector with a slash through the middle. He wore dark green nail polish and a ring on his left middle finger. Scarlett couldn't see it clearly but she supposed it read North.

"Hi there, you must be my dad right?" she asked leaning forward slightly as she looked up at the man.

He simply nodded and motioned for her to follow him, wanting to talk in private.

Scarlett nodded and hummed as she marched out behind him.

**Sora's pov**

Sora had been biting at her gloved fingers as she shuffled looking at a man with the same blue eye as hers. That had to be her father, she just felt it.

As the leader left, her eyes stayed on him and his on her. As the Red eyes man left, her eyes remained, as did his. Then the funky haired girl and her father left, and they still stood staring.

This man, Sora's father, unlike the others, walked towards her slowly. As he emerged from the shadows she could see that his hair was actually half up and down. His forehead protector village symbol was hidden because of his long bang. He wore the same long black cloak covered with red clouds just as all the other men had before him.

He drew closer and let out a strained breath. Up close, Sora could see that he was very nervous and uncertain. Actually all the fathers had seemed that way after that one girl's outburst. "Sora…" the man started, shocking her that she knew her name. she could tell that since the others had left, and it was just those two in the room, they would be talking here. "I'm so terribly sorry."

* * *

**Aaaannnnd CUT! Sorry guys but I've got to stop it here! All the actual juicy goodness starts comes in the next chapter. I hope to update at least once a week if not twice, but please bear with me if I don't it's my senior year and things are pretty hectic for me on this side. But antywhoo, I hope you all are enjoying it so far. I apologize if any of you feel it was sloppy of me to mesh more than one pov together at once but hey, it was easier for me that way. **

**ALSO! I would like to get more guys in on this! There are still some fathers who are vacant. I have some ideas that I want to see used but I need more guys to do that so come on fellas send in your info!**

**Characters taken and their fathers and ages:**

**Kyo-myself-Itachi-17**

**Karin-miss89-Itachi-17**

**Sora-Booberrry123-Deidara-12**

**Illia sakurano-Rosebud130-Pein and Konan-15**

**Shouta-Charity-Tobi-15 **

**Scarlett-Rini-Kakuzu-16**

**Vacant daddys:**

**Hidan**

**Kisame**

**Sasori**

**Zetsu**


	3. Sorry Doesn't Always Cut It

_**A/N:: **_attention my dear readers! My apologies for taking so long to post this chapter. There was a moment when fanfiction stopped letting me post things and even stopped letting me sign in =( I was devastated just about. But I have all my systems up and running again.

Oh and another thing, I have a few major project that have been slammed on me for my Human Anatomy class so I will be spending most of my time working on that rather than posting up my stories but please be patient with me, I will get around to posting eventually.

Now! Enough of the boring drabble and on to the story! Enjoy! ^_^

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or the Akatsuki or any of the OCs except Kyo.

Chapter Three: Sorry Doesn't Always Cut It

**Sora's pov**

"I'm so terribly sorry."

Sora blinked as she looked at the blonde man before him. He was apologizing, but for what? She opened her mouth to say something but he kept going.

"I know you may hate me, but please allow me to just get this story out to you okay?"

Without waiting for a response, he launched into his thoughts, spilling out his most intimate of memories to her from the past.

"I was a ninja of the Iwagakure village, and I was greedy for power I guess you can say. But that all changed once I met your mother. She was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen but she was just as deadly as she was attractive. She took away all my want and need for power. All I could see was her and all I wanted was her." He smiled softly as he looked elsewhere, almost as though he were envisioning her standing there. "For another year or two I stayed to be with her until she noticed my sadness in wanting to attain more strength. She said she was behind me 100%. She said she would back me up. I stole from my village and became a fugitive, a wanted criminal dead or alive. My only option was to flee the village. Your mother advised me to go, practically kicked me out of the village gates herself. She'd said it was okay for me to leave as long as I came back for her. And I'd planned to stick to my promise.

"The night before I left, your mother was trying to do everything in her will to get me to stay, to just turn myself in and maybe the punishment wouldn't be as severe as it would be if I were to run and get caught. It threw me for a loop since she was the one who had encouraged me to go after my dream and told me to leave ad yet here she was, trying so desperately to keep me from it. I just couldn't understand.

"As she pleaded with me, she looked at me with such big fear filled eyes and a face that just screamed vulnerability…" he looked off again, this time his expression meeker, his eyes broadcasting the sorrow of his heart loud and clear.

"I neglected her. I pushed her away. I said horrible things to her. Then I left… I felt awful and it didn't help when I'd learned that she was pregnant. It made perfect sense to me then why she was trying so hard to keep me there. But I just didn't understand why she wouldn't just come right out and say she was going to my child. I traveled back to the village to find her and ask her those things but when I got there I found that she was dead and you were 13. So much time had gone by before I learned of these things and it killed me." He looked Sora, eyes moist and the blue a darker shade.

"I didn't say all of those things to you as a way of making an excuse for what I've done; there is no excuse. I was a terrible boyfriend to your mother and a horrible father to you because of my absence. I brought you here to make things right, to be the father to you that I should've been since the moment you were conceived. Please Sora, forgive your father."

Sora blinked seeing the man before her tremble slightly. As he ended his speech off, she could tell his voice had become low and strained. His eyes sparkled more with tears in the corners threatening to seep over. His face had flushed and he was trying so hard to keep from falling apart before her.

"I don't hate you…" Sora said softly looking to the man with a faint tender smile on her lips. "I can never hate you, you're my father. However, I do expect you to make up all the time lost between us, all 13 years, starting today."

Deidara blinked. His mind was slowly processing what the girl in front of him had just said, and with a cry of pure joy he engulfed his daughter in a tight hug that he had been longing to give her since he'd learn of her existence.

Sora giggled softly hugging her father back and smiled as they both pulled away. He took her hand in his and they walked out of the meeting hall, chatting and catching up with each other.

**Scarlett's pov**

Scarlett walked with the man with the covered face until he led her outside to what looked like their training grounds. "Are we gonna play?" she asked with sadistic grin plastered on her face.

The man shook his head. "No. We're going to talk."

Scarlett pouted "that's no fun." She sat on a nearby pole in the ground and looked at him, motioning for him to go on with his talk.

"The reason that you haven't seen me until now is not that I didn't want to be a father to you, it's because your mother didn't want me to be." He began telling his story leaning against the post behind him and crossed his arms over his chest.

Scarlett blinked and sat up a bit, "Mom didn't…"

He shook his head. "No. She didn't. Apparently after I'd gotten her pregnant she became so disgusted with me. I was happy, she was not. She didn't want to see me ever again. She told me to never come around her ever again and I obliged. I loved her enough to give her what she wanted…which says a lot since I love money dearly but that's beside the point." He took a deep breath and continued.

"I loved her dearly, I did. So I granted her wish. Then I heard she'd gotten into a bit of trouble and I went looking for her. By the time I found her…" he shook his head, "it was too late."

As the man before her told of his story, Scarlett felt something weird stir inside of her. Sympathy and compassion is what it was.

"I went looking for you but could never find you. For years and years, day and night, I looked and searched until I finally found you now." As he said that he opened his eyes, Scarlett hadn't even noticed that they had been closed. The look inside of them was so far away yet filled with so much fatherly feeling that Scarlett felt his heart burst.

She hopped off the pole where she was once perched and crossed the space between them looking up into her father's eyes. "I'm really sorry that mom cut you out of my life and I'm sorry that it took you this long to find me, but now that we're here now we have loads of time to spend catching up and playing together." She grinned sort of childishly at him.

Kakuzu blinked then smiled softly beneath his mask and pulled his daughter into a warm hole. For the first time in a long time, he felt complete.

**Karin and Kyo's pov**

Kyo sighed walking behind her twin. The tight set of her shoulders just spelled out aggravation quite clearly. She bit the inside of her jaw and pleaded with her internally _Please Karin…at least hear him out first… _as if getting the message, Karin looked over her shoulder towards the other twin. _Please… _Kyo repeated again.

Karin sighed and stopped walking so that Kyo could catch up with her. _I'll try sis…_

Kyo smiled and grabbed her sister's hand giving it a reassuring squeeze. _That's all I ask of you._

Their walk soon slowed as the tall dark haired man before them stopped and turned to face them both. Karin's face hardened once again and she glared blankly in the man's direction.

Kyo sighed squeezing the girl's hand as if to warn/remind her of the promise she'd given.

Karin sighed and shuffled trying to straighten her posture as much as she could manage and looked at the man just blankly now.

Itachi sighed and leaned against the wall. He kept his arms folded over his chest picking through the words buzzing around in his mind. He knew he would have to pick and choose through them carefully. Judging by the previous behavior of the tallest one, he presumed she acted much like her uncle when he was a lot younger.

With a heavy sigh, Itachi just spat out the one sentence that kept reappearing in his head over and over again. "I'm sorry girls…I really am."

Kyo inhaled sharply, her eyes wide, she wasn't expecting that to be the first thing said, and with the way her twin stiffened beside her she could tell that she didn't either.

Karin was just standing there as if frozen in time. She felt like she had been slapped across the face or had her belly piercing ripped out. No actually that might've been less painful. Her lips parted and soft whisper escaped from them that was so sharp it could cut finely through the tension emitting from her. "Sorry…? Is that all you can say for yourself…sorry?"

She took her hand out of Kyo's and heard her sister mutter something under her breath as she took a step forward. "You're sorry? Seriously? Sorry doesn't always cut it! **I'm** sorry that I'm stuck with a dead beat dumb ass dad like you who bailed out on mom, left her for dead nearly, suddenly decided to come and find us now, and all he has to say for himself is 'I'm sorry'. No fuck that and fuck you! We were just fine on our own and quite frankly, I think things would be better if you would just leave us be so we can go home and things can go back to the way they were. We'll pretend we never met you and you can wallow in your self pity all by your fucking self."

With that, Karin turned to leave and disappeared down the long dark hall, her twin and father looking behind her.

Kyo turned back to see her dad slumped against the wall looking to this feet. His cool, calm, and collected mask that she could tell he usually wore had faded away and he now looked on the edge of tears, a sight she knew that only she and Karin would ever be blessed enough to see.

Kyo bit the inside of her cheek hard as she crossed over to him. As she drew closer, she could see the tears that were beginning to stain his face. she bit into her skin harder until she tasted the coppery liquid that flowed from it. Reaching out a hand to touch his shoulder, she muttered one word. "Daddy..."

Itachi blinked snapping out of his moment and looked at her. There was so much he wanted to say, so much he needed to say but the words just wouldn't come. But those eyes…those big caring and understanding eyes that were a weird mix of teal and coal black eyes made him feel like he didn't even need to say anything. Like she didn't care what the reason was she was just happy that he was here now. It made him feel better but still…he wanted both daughters to feel this way.

With a deep sigh he opened his mouth to say something but the girl stopped him. "Karin needs to hear this too."

Kyo took her father's hand and walked with him to where she knew her sister was.

Just outside of the base, sitting on the roof with her knees pulled into her chest, was Karin. Her brow was furrowed and her lips puckered in a pout as she fumed in deep thought. "Go away…" she mumbled.

Kyo sighed and looked up at her dad as if to say 'One minute' and went to her sister's side.

Itachi watched as they mumbled to themselves, Karin becoming agitated as well as Kyo. "Karin." She didn't yell, she hadn't shouted but her voice tone was so forceful that it snapped Karin's attention to Kyo and held it there. Kyo talked quick and swift in a stern voice and Karin hung her head then nodded. Itachi raised an eyebrow wondering what just happened.

Kyo looked over at him and motioned for him to come on over with a nod of her head and he did so.

He took a seat between both of his girls, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

"It happened just a short month before I was assigned a mission that changed the rest of my life for forever and marked it with unforgettable memories that to this day still haunt me in my sleep."

The twins blinked and shot a glace towards each other. They wondered what that was all about.

"I've known your mother for quite some time; we actually grew up together and grew to like each other. It was an instant connection between she and I and nothing could break it. We felt unstoppable. Until a month later the Hogake called me into his office and gave me an assignment that sickened me to my core. I was to kill each and every last member of my clan."

Both girls gasped and their eyes widened while Itachi opened his and nodded.

"At first of course I refused. Not only was the woman that I loved dearly was an Uchiha, but so was the rest of my family. That was my pride, my heritage; I couldn't just exterminate them for some idiotic selfish predetermined fear in the mind of the Hokage that was so ridiculous as it was…well simply put retarded. When I refused he threatened me. He threatened to kill them all off by his own means and finish me in the process as well but in a way to where I wish I was dead. Regretting it before I had even executed the task, I accepted and left quickly.

"Everyone knew there was something different about me; they could just feel it in my presence. Even your mother knew something was wrong and that something big was coming. It took me a few weeks to prepare everything…to erase all of my emotions for everything and everyone to do what I was demanded."

"You killed-" Itachi cut off Karin.

"No I didn't kill your mother. I didn't kill my little brother either. They were two that I loved the most out of that entire village. Instead I told them to grow to hate me. Hate me so much that they came after me and killed me the way I deserved to be killed. It was that night that I learned of your mother being pregnant and I told her to raise you both in hating me as well so if she didn't avenge her clan then you two could."

Kyo looked over at Karin who was shuffling guiltily on the other side of him.

"I heard of your mother dying and I had to come and get you. I had already messed up my chances with my younger brother and I wanted…I needed things to be different with my daughters…the apples of my eyes. I searched for you until I found you and brought you back here to me so we could be a family."

He looked at Karin and grabbed her chin softly making her look at him. "I didn't say I was sorry because that was all I had to say for myself. I said it because I meant it in the most literal meaning of the word. I was sorry for what I did and I'm still a very sorry piece of trash. But I hope that you will give me the chance to be the father to you that I've always wanted to be since before you were born."

Karin's lip trembled. All of his words sunk deep within her being and she felt a dam of hate that she spent all of her 17 years building in her heart break down. "Dad." She hugged him tightly and he gladly pulled her into his chest.

Kyo joined in on the hug and after time they all separate and were wrapped in a silence that was far from awkward. It was an air of understanding. It felt as though no more words needed to be shared, they all had come to an agreement to cherish each other since they were with each other now.

Karin was the first to break the silence. "Just because I hugged you and called you dad doesn't mean that I totally forgive and trust you just yet."

Itachi chuckled and Kyo shook her head sighing. "I wouldn't expect it for one moment." He told her with a warm smile that she gladly returned.


	4. Sweet Friendships and Sour Altercations1

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or the Akatsuki or any of the OCs except Kyo.

_**A/N:: **_Because I haven't been on recently and haven't posted this chapter up when I said I would, I will be giving you three chapters today. That's right, I said three. But it's not like it's for any of my readers who have been oh so kind enough to review and tell me what you think, but rather for my only reviewer Rosebud130. Thanks a lot for your feedback and ideas! You're great ^_^.

Thanks again to Rosebud 130 for the creation of two more oc's Kiyoshi and Hirota.

Thanks so much!

Chapter Four: Sweet Friendships and Sour Altercations~Part 1 

**Kiyoshi's pov**

Walking down the dimly lit corridors of the Akatsuki base, Kiyoshi couldn't help but feel happy to be home.

He glanced over at the source of the other pair of footsteps next to him. Hirota, despite his placid appearance, was just as happy to be at home too from their two week long mission.

As he got closer into the main hall, he heard voices chatting and figured it must be the rest of the Akatsuki planning something out or maybe Illia and Shouta were there just talking.

**With the kids somewhere at Akatsuki base**

Karin grumbled softly and frowned, a vein bulged against her forehead as her fists clenched. "Alright kid…I'm gonna ask you once more…what. is. your. NAME?" she said taking her time to pronounce each word of the previous question carefully and clearly.

The girl dressed in all white just looked up at her from her book, gave off a nonchalant shrug, and went back to reading.

"Why you little-" Kyo stood grabbing the back of her sister's shirt and tugged at it, keeping a good distance between her flailing arms and the girl reading.

"Calm down Karin…that's enough."

"But…but…" Karin looked back to face her twin then sighed seeing the hard set on her blank face and nodded. "Fine…" she grumbled twisting free and slumped on the sofa.

Kyo sighed. After talking with their fathers last night, they stayed up spending time in the lounge room of the base "getting to know the others" as the leader, Pein, called it, but that was hardly happening. So far everyone knew everybody's name but the little one dressed in all white.

Kyo had to admit it bugged her a little as well, but she wouldn't be rash about it. Looking over to her fuming sister she sighed once more and shook her head, _What am I going to do with you? _She thought.

Karin smirked at this. _Tie me up and throw me in some cute boy's closet._

Kyo rolled her eyes. _The closet part can be arranged but I don't know about the guy._

Karin smirked and simply shrugged earning an eye roll from her twin and a shake of her head.

Illia sighed, going back to her reading, rather happy to say the least that Karin had stopped pestering her about what her name was. Why was that important? Illia didn't see the need to say, whether asked or not. And honestly she would prefer to keep it that way, wouldn't want her being bothered by constantly hearing her name called now did she?

The sound of footsteps as the door opened called everyone's attention to the door and Illia was the first to break the silence. "Kiyo-nii!" she yelled as she stood, swiftly running over, to jump and attach herself around the tall guy's neck.

Karin and Kyo glanced at one another, _Kyo…nii?_, they thought with a tilt of their heads.

Kyo looked at the boy up and down, taking in what she could see that wasn't blocked by the girl around his neck. He was about 6'5" easy with blonde hair and orange eyes that matched Illia's. He wore the same cloak that Kyo's father and the other men in this house, the Akatsuki cove, wore.

**Kiyoshi's pov**

Once he opened the door, Kiyoshi heard the nickname given to him by only one person in the entire world. Within the blink of an eye, he was being glomped by his younger sister. A warm smile spread across his face as he hugged her back. "Hey there Illia."

"Illia?" other voices in the room echoed. Kiyoshi picked his head up, finally registering that there were other people in the room and quickly put together the pieces of everyone's face as they eyed his younger sibling as she slid from around his neck and stood before him.

Hirota seemed to notice the others at the same time as Kiyoshi, but he merely shrugged and disappeared off to his room quietly.

"Illia…what did I tell you about having good manners?"

Illia frowned and looked to her feet. "Always introduce yourself when asked or when it's appropriate like meeting someone new…"

"Right." Kiyoshi said with a nod and patted her head. "Here I got you something." He reached into his back pack and pulled out a brown hardback book.

Illia's eyes widened and she let out a tiny gasp. "Thank you thank you thank youuuu!" she sang taking the book from her big brother and ran off to her room.

Kiyoshi looked at the others in the room whose eyes were still on his sister's retreating form. "Excuse her please, she has a hard time trusting people so meeting new people doesn't always work out well with her." He explained with a smile. "I'm Kiyoshi by the way."

The two raven haired girls looked at him. "Kyo." The one with blue green eyes said then pointed to the one next to her that looked exactly like her but with onyx eyes, twins no doubt, "Karin."

"Sora." A little girl with blonde hair introduced herself.

"Scarlett." A rather chipper teen said with her hair in pigtails.

Kiyoshi smiled nodding. "Pleasure to meet you all."

Everyone mumbled a likewise except for the onyx eyed twin, Karin. She was too busy gawking at Kiyoshi to say anything. "Yes?" he asked wondering what was causing that expression.

"A book…not a treat, or a toy…but a book. How weird!"

"Karin," Kyo said warningly, "everyone who likes books aren't weird…remember that." She muttered and sat back against the sofa cushion behind her and Kiyoshi shrugged looking at Karin.

"That's just how my sister is. I don't know if you would understand it very well, but getting a new book to her is like getting the latest toy to other children. She has a whole collection of them that takes up nearly the entire span of her room."

Karin seemed to be humbled a bit by his words and smiled closing her eyes. "Well Kiyoshi, I understand it a lot more than you think." She opened her eyes to look at her twin next to her scribbling down something in a wire-binded tablet.

Kiyoshi understood immediately. "Kyo-chan…may I call you that?" he paused looking to the shorter of the twins. Her colorful orbs found him and she nodded. "I'm sure Illia wouldn't mind if you borrowed a book from her now and then. Her room's the furthest down the hall with a white door, you can't miss it."

Kyo nodded. "Thank you."

"Anytime." He said with a wink.

Kyo sat there blinking at him as her face flushed slowly and she turned her head away quickly before her twin would have to notice, whipping her hair in her face to cover her burning cheeks. Kiyoshi smiled, the gesture was rather cute.

Illia soon ran into the room "I forgot something!" she yelled running to her brother to give him a thank you kiss on the cheek. As she pulled away, she noticed things were a tad bit awkward. "What'd I miss?"

Kiyoshi smiled looking at her and shook his head. "Nothing dear sister…but would you be so kind as to show Kyo-chan your book collection;"

Illia nodded and walked over to stand before Kyo who looked up at her slowly. "Do you want to see my books?"

Kyo's mouth twitched a bit, as if she wanted to smile, and she nodded. "I would love to." She stood with Illia leading her down the hall and to her room.

Kiyoshi smiled watching them leave. He hoped they would hit it off as friends; Illia could really use a girl friend around the base.

As he came back to his whereabouts, he noticed the other children were gone and Karin was standing right in front of him with a dangerous look in her eyes. No, dangerous didn't quite fit here. Her stare was one more of the lustful type. Kiyoshi sighed inwardly, here we go again.

Karin smirked."Since everyone is gone now, how about we get a little more acquainted?" her voice purred out softly and flirtatiously.

"My apologies but I'm not interested." Kiyoshi hoped that it would be enough to make her back down, but usually with girls like her, with that much fire in their eyes, it's not.

Karin just stood there for a moment then shrugged turning away. "Ehh well, I tried." She plopped back down on the sofa and leaned her head back with her eyes closed.

_Well that was easy… _Kiyoshi thought going to make his report to the boss then was going to head to his room.

**Kyo's pov**

"There's quite a lot, but I make good use in organizing them well." Illia said as she opened her room door.

Kyo's jaw nearly dropped as she looked around at the bookshelves that covered three out of the four walls of her room. They were filled minus three shelves on the last bookshelf. The books, Kyo could tell right off the back, were organized by author and series. She'd been invited to heaven.

"Take whichever you like, but just know that I don't handle my books lightly. I treat them with care, and if you don't…I'll have your head." Illia plopped down on her bed reading the new book her brother had just given her. It shocked Kyo how much Illia was talking to her and with such ease. Maybe finding out they had a common like broke down one of her guarded walls.

Kyo shook her head. "No need. I know the value of a good book." She drifted over to the largest shelf on the back wall of her room and plucked a book down. She smiled reading the print across binding. "House of Night Series…you have impeccably good taste."

((**A/N:: **For my sake people, let's pretend that they have access to the same type of books that we do.))

Illia smiled a tiny grin and peered over her book. "Heard of it?"

Kyo smiled, feeling more at ease with the young girl."Heard of it, I've read every book." She looked back to the bookshelf and plucked the last one. "They were my inspiration to start writing."

Illia raised a golden eyebrow. "You write?"

Kyo nodded. "When I get the chance. I would like to have them published some day, but I haven't had anyone to really read my work and give me proper feedback on it." She frowned thinking of Karin. "Well my sister has read snippets, but she's never patient enough to actually finish the entire piece."

"I see…" Illia said. "Well, let's strike a deal here, promise me your work isn't complete and total crap and I'll become your personal editor."

Kyo smiled a bit more and nodded. "Deal." She could tell this would be the beginning of a great friendship.


	5. Sweet Friendship and Sour Altercations2

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or the Akatsuki or any of the OCs except Kyo.

Chapter Four: Sweet Friendships and Sour Altercations~Part 2 

**Sora's pov**

Sora sighed softly as she rounded the corner and paused catching her breath. She peeped around the corner into the corridor and saw nothing. She let out a deep breath and leaned back against the stone slab behind her. "Good…I lost her."

She closed her eyes taking deep slow breaths, willing her breathing back to normal. A giggle next to her sent chills all over her and her eyes opened with a snap. She came face to face with those scary bright green eyes and bone-chilling wild grin that belong to Scarlett, or as Sora called her, creepy jester girl. "This is fun! What will we play next?"

"Leave me alone!" Sora yelled running around the corner away from the girl chasing behind her. Why or why did it have to be her? Sora never bothered anyone nor did she cause any kind of drama. Yes, she pulled pranks here and there but it would only be out of boredom and nothing too serious. Surely she didn't deserve being chased around a base for S-ranked criminals that had now become her home by a deranged psychopath. Oh yeah, she so enjoying her move.

Running into some random room, she slammed the door shut and sighed pressing her back against it. Hearing running coming down the hall, she covered her mouth and nose with both hands, as if to press her shaky breathing back into her face. The steps stopped just outside the door and she squeezed her eyes shut tightly. _Please please please! _She screamed in her mind.

The girl in the hall giggled and turned running down the hall. Sora let out her shaky exasperated yelp of relief and dropped down to the floor wiping a hand over her forehead. "That was close…"

"Umm…?"

Sora squeaked, eyes widening with surprise. Someone was in the room with her but who? She looked up seeing the young boy from before, the one with the eye patch over one eye and the boy-ish face. "What are you doing here?"

He looked around the room then looked back at her speaking slowly, almost as if he were unsure of his answer. "This is my room…"

"Oh!" Sora squeaked again. "I'm sorry I was just umm…"

"Running, from that one girl, Scarlett right?" he finished for her.

_Either this boy is sharp or it was just that obvious. _Sora thought with a nod to his question.

He leaned on the wall behind his bed. "Yeah that girl's pretty scary." He shivered as if thinking about her was enough to strike fear into his bones. "And she looks like a crayon box barfed all over her."

Sora let out a tiny giggle and felt her fear melting away from her. She looked up into the big round blue eye of the boy before her and stood holding out her hand. "Sora."

The boy smiled shaking her hand. "Shouta."

"I don't think you were in the room before when we all met each other?" Sora said pulling her hand back and went to take her seat once again with her back to the door.

"No," Shouta shook his head, "I was talking with my father about something and I just headed straight back to my room. I'll meet everyone else later when I'm up to it." He shrugged.

**Scarlett's pov**

It wasn't like it took Scarlett until the moment she rounded the next corner that she'd lost Sora, she knew from the moment that the little girl hid in that one room she was gone. She felt like letting her think she didn't know. She was tired of chasing her around anyway.

Making her way back into the main hall, she saw Karin there sitting peacefully on the sofa with her head thrown back against the cushion. She looked as though she were asleep. Scarlett smirked getting an idea and crept over to her. "Boo!" she screamed out childishly as she jumped on the sofa next to Karin.

Karin didn't jump or budge but her eyes did snap open however and the look inside of them was pretty wild. It made Scarlett giggle. Karin slowly turned her head to the giggling girl next to her who covered her purple lips with her hand. Her eyebrow twitched and it made Scarlett giggle more. _This girl sure does make funny faces. _She thought.

"I was sleeping kid…" she said slowly, "what the hell's your problem?"

Scarlett shrugged in response still giggling. She knew Karin's tone was meant to strike fear but it did the exact opposite. "I need someone to play with."

Karin's face changed quickly as she looked at her incredulously. "What the fuck?"

Scarlett busted with laughter now. "You're so funny! I knew I came to the right person! Let's play a game! Umm how about tag? Or hide and go seek?"

Karin's eyes bugged. But she nodded "Okay, hide and go seek sounds great. You go first."

"YAY!" Scarlett cheered. "You're the best."

"Uh huh kid…" Karin mumbled closing her eyes. "One…two…three…"

Scarlett let out a giggle and jumped up running to go and hide.

**Karin's pov**

"Five…six…" Karin stopped counting and looked down the corridor making sure the girl was long gone.

"Crazy little…" she grumbled standing to walk to her room to finish her nap. But then remembered. Kyo.

_I haven't seen her since we meet that Kiyoshi guy… _Karin went further down the hall, past her and her sister's room door, finding the white door Kiyoshi mentioned and knocked.

Illia answered and Karin's face flattened. "Kyo in there?"

Illia didn't speak but pushed the door open further to show Karin her sister laid on her tummy across her bed reading a book that she'd red millions of times over. Karin smiled a bit and looked to the ground picking up a small pebble and flicked it at Kyo.

The pebble bounced off her head and her sister's eyes slowly slid over to her and she smiled sliding off of the bed walking to the door. "Thanks again Illia."

The little girl nodded with a really tiny smile "Anytime…"

Kyo nodded and slipped out into the hall falling in step next to her sister. "You really hit it off with her I presume?"

Kyo nodded still looking in the book. "Yeah, she's actually quite nice, but like her brother said she has major trust issues and builds a lot of walls around her which I think comes from living here with criminals."

Karin nodded. "Huh…welp. Wanna train some?"

Kyo looked at her from over the book and smirked nodding.

**Hirota's pov**

Hirota was out peacefully training when he noticed two girls walking outside to the area where he was. They looked just a like, well minus the eye color difference, they were twins he could tell that much for sure. He watched them silently as they continued walking and finally noticed him.

"You were training already?" the shorter asked.

He nodded. "I was but I'm finished now." With that, Hirota hopped on the roof top of the base and looked down at them opening his arms. "It's all yours."

The shorter girl nodded and turned to her sister who was glaring at him with a look of annoyance. He sighed. What was it now? Everyone was such a nuisance. "Yeah we're Karin and Kyo, pleasure to meet you too Mr. Rudeness."

"Hirota." was all he said back and watched as she fumed with anger. It made him smirk slightly. He had to admit he was a bit disappointed that her sister made her hush. This could turn out to be either quite interesting, or incredibly annoying.

**Sora's pov**

Walking the halls back to her room, Sora couldn't seem to get Shouta out of her head. He was her first official friend. Not just here but ever. He actually talked to her and showed interest at it unlike the others who all called her a freak because of the mouths in her hands. It wasn't her fault she was born that way.

She was comforted when she found that Shouta thought it was actually pretty neat. It made her even happier.

She walked down the hall seeing Illia walk by with her nose buried deep within a book, and smiled. "Hi."

The girl looked up at her and looked back down then continued walking.

Sora frowned. Rude much?

She sighed shrugging it off and finished her walk to her room. She stopped short seeing a distant figure down the hall. It was tall and had two thingies sticking out from either side of its head…sorta like pigtails. Her eyes widened. _Oh no…_

As she blinked the figure got closer and closer and closer until Scarlett was standing at least three feet away from her. Letting out a yelp of surprise at her speed, Sora fell back on her butt looking up to the older girl in fear. Why was she being such a bully to her?

"You didn't want to play with me," Her voice came out harsh and gruff, nearly like that of a boy's when he's upset, "so I'm going to make you pay."

Sora was left there blinking in fright and confusion as she tried to make sense of what it was that she just said to her. She was going to pay…for not playing with her? Really now? What was she like 16 and she had the mind of a 6 year old.

Sora stood, her mind deducted it must be from her lack of not 'getting any' but that was far from her problem. She whould be harassing some boys around her to get them to play with her. Like that one guy, Kiyoshi. He was pretty attractive and even that one red head whose name he didn't give.

Sora sighed shrugging it off and went on to her room, hoping things would get better but something deep within her mind told her that it wasn't.


	6. Sweet Friendships and Sour Altercations3

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or the Akatsuki or any of the OCs except Kyo.

Chapter Four: Sweet Friendships and Sour Altercations~Part 3 

**Scarlett's pov**

She wasn't pleased. She wasn't please at all.

Brows set in a deep frown, Scarlett paced back and forth in the room of another Akatsuki kid. She looked around all of their possessions then looked to the explosive clay she stole off Sora when chasing her around. The litter dobe didn't even notice. She smirked. _Hmp…serves her right. Now after what I'll do to her name, she'll have no choice but to be my permanent play thing. _

Rolling tiny (to her but the amount had to be the size of a bread roll) pinches of exploding clay, she stuck at least four rolls under the polished wood and stepped back looking at her work. She could tell this would really excite things up.

**Illia's pov**

Illia went back to her room noticing she'd picked up the wrong book. She'd mistakenly put the new book her brother gave her today back on the shelf and replaced it with another she'd previously read.

Going to pick up the book she was seeking, she blinked in shock and awe as something so terrible, so enraging happened.

Her favorite bookshelf…just exploded.

Paper flew everywhere.

All was still.

All was quiet.

Her face was unmoving from its wide-eyed, jaw dropped expression.

She couldn't believe this just happened.

Regaining her composure, she lowered her head, her bangs casting shadows into her eyes and she strode out of her room slamming the door shut.

**Scarlett's pov**

Giggling like a maniac, Scarlett popped out of the shadows and watched the beginning stages of what she'd done take course.

**Sora's pov**

Sora was lounging around in the main hall, tossing a tiny ball of exploding clay up and down and up and down over and over again out of boredom.

She blinked as the ball was suddenly snatched from her and tossed out of the window. An explosion was heard along with shocked gasps and yells of complaints. "Hey careful with that!" she said looking up at who'd done it.

**Illia's pov**

Illia looked down at the girl. Did she just tell me to be careful?

"You weren't careful when you wired my bookshelf now were you?" she felt her insides heat up as Sora had the nerve to blink in confusion. "Now I won't be so careful when I rip your head from your shoulders!"

"Hey! What the hell was that for?" Karin yelled crawling through the window with Kyo and Hirota following behind. "You nearly blew my foot off."

"Not now." Illia said none too politely and looked back at Sora and was preparing to launch herself at her when Kiyoshi showed up with Shouta close behind.

**Kiyoshi's pov**

"What's with all the explosions?" he asked looking around. As next in line to run the organization and the oldest of all the kids, it was his responsibility looking after all of the kids and making sure they got along okay; or at least didn't destroy anything of great value.

His father just placed the job on his shoulders and expected the task to not be handled lightly and that's just what Kiyoshi planned on doing. So when Illia jabbed an accusing finger to Sora, he knew the time had come for his first job.

"She blew up my entire bookshelf with all my favorite collections on it!"

"Did not!" Sora defended.

"Yes you did! You and your dad are the only two people around here who uses the explosive clay in battle and I doubt very strongly that he would be dumb enough to do that to my things!"

Sora blinked. "Did you just call my dad stupid? And I did not touch your stuff! I haven't even been in your room!"

"Yes. You. Have." The words came out as dangerous growls from deep within Illia's throat as she stepped closer to a quivering Sora. Now she was exactly where she wanted her.

Kiyoshi watched all this take place and could tell by the look on her face and the sound of her voice that Sora didn't do it. Before he could say anything, Karin beat him to the punch.

"Hey now, calm down and let's think about this okay. It's obvious she didn't do it."

"You stay out of this you inappropriately dressed emo wanna-be."

Kiyoshi's eyes widened and he looked over taking in not only Karin's but Kyo's face as well. Both were shocked, and pissed.

**Karin's pov**

"what…did you just…CALL ME?" she yelled out. How dare that little snot! Who the hell did she think she was?

Storming over, Karin grabbed her by the collar of her white cloak and pulled her up to eye level. "You listen to me you little terd, I'm trying to help your little ass out."

"Oh believe me I don't need your help at all!" Illia shot back.

"Looks like you need somebody's for taking a shot at a girl who didn't do shit to ya!"

"How would you know? You were outside the entire time!"

"Look at her! Look at how freaked she is! Do you think she really did this?"

**Kyo's pov**

Kyo sighed watching. She knew it would best to let them argue this out. Those books were important to Illia and they'd been destroyed. She's venting. That's important. Maybe then after she won't want to kill Sora anymore.

Among all this calamity…she was the only one to notice Scarlett not present.

_Hmmm?_

**Kiyoshi's pov**

The entire time they bantered back and forth, he'd been trying to use the quiet method to gain their attention but it wasn't working at all. Kiyoshi groaned and ran a hand through his hair. "GIRLS!"

He roared out. Immediately all eyes, female and male, were on him. "Settle down and let's solve this rationally."

"That'll have to wait for now." A smooth voice came from behind him. He turned to see none other than Pein. "Father…"

Pein's eyes flittered over to his son for a split second then back to the kids before him. "Come. We have important matters to discuss." He then turned and left, not looking back to see if anyone were following at all.

* * *

**A/N:: **Part three of chapter four down and out! Please readers review, review, review! Let me know what you think! And it's not too late to get your character in on the action!


	7. It's All About Teamwork

**A/N: Here's where thing's really begin to perk up. With all the character intros out of the way, we can truly get this party started. Please enjoy! And to Rosebud130, ****I will never be able to thank you enough for all your kind contributions. Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or the Akatsuki or any of the OCs except Kyo. Karin belongs to my sissy Miss89. Hirota, Kiyoshi, Illia and the soon to join us Zero and Yami all belong to Rosebud130.

Chapter Five: It's all About Teamwork

Pein led the children following him into the meeting hall of the Akatsuki, where the children first met their fathers. He motioned for them to stand in the middle of the circle as he took his place.

All of the kids lined up, looking around the circle at their parents and other team members of the Akatsuki before their eyes rested back on Pein.

"I would say that I hope you all have used your time wisely and have gotten to know each other a bit, but as I can see that would be a bit...vague." he said his eyes passing over Sora, Illia, and Karin. "At any rate, the time to lie around is past spent. As children of the Akatsuki, you are our successors; meaning that once we can no longer carry out the mission of our clan, you will take up our stride. But you must be put to the test to see if it's something that you can truly handle. This test is not something to be taken lightly. It will determine who your partner will be and what missions you will be assigned. It is up to whether or not you choose to work with someone on this test mission, but don't get comfortable with that person because they will most likely not be your partner. The members of the Akatsuki will be following you, watching you and taking notes to bring them back to me. From there I'll decide who to put together. With all that being said, here's your test."

Kiyoshi wondered why his father was putting so much time into this generation of the Akatsuki. He knew that he hadn't done this type of thing with the guys working for him now. He just put the newbies somewhere, no matter if their partner hated them or if they weren't very compatible with each other. It didn't matter to him. So why now? And a test mission as well. Something was up.

There was a meow then another and another from within the darkness surrounding the Akatsuki. All of the kids blinked looking to where the noise came from. Five kittens came prancing out of the darkness and everyone blinked. _You're kidding…_ was the first thing that came their minds.

"These cats will run just about anywhere, and by anywhere I do mean anywhere. They can leave from here and travel within the Hidden Leaf Village if they like, and you are to catch them." Pein said matter of factly.

"You can't..." Kyo started, "be serious." Karin finished.

"Oh but I am. I am very serious and like I said before it's not anything to be taken lightly."

Sighing Kyo looked at him. "There are eight of us, and five cats...what's the catch?"

Though his face was hidden a smirk was evident in his voice, "You're very attentive. As to be expected from a child of Itachi. You can figure it out."

Kyo bit her tongue to keep from sighing again and just narrowed her eyes slightly.

"So much like your father..." Pein said as if talking to himself. "Now enough talking, get to it. Catch the cats as fast as you possibly can and bring them back to me. And hurry at it, there are two others that you haven't had a chance to meet yet and I have a feeling they will be here waiting for you when you get back."

Everyone nodded and watched as the Akatsuki disappeared and the cats pranced past them and out into the hall. Karin raised an eyebrow as they followed them all the way outside. "And this shouldn't be taken lightly why?" she asked as she put a hand on her hip. "Okay, here I go."

She advanced for the kitty in the center. It was the one with the brightest fur. A fluorescent orange with turquoise spots. It's back right paw was white and it had a white star painted on its left eye. It looked back at her and meowed. "Aww hey precious," Karin cooed, "we'll call you star. You like that name?"

Just as her fingers were preparing to touch the cat, it struck out. Karin blinked pulling back with four well defined red marks stretching from her eye to her neck. "It's scratched me!" Kyo covered her mouth to keep from snickering. "You little-"

In a blink of an eye the cat was on the highest branch of a tree before her. All the kids looked in awe as the other four joined it. Their little kitten muzzles gave of smirks as they vanished, running off in five different directions as blurs of color.

_This is not something to take lightly. _Pein's words rang through all of their heads.

The kids looked at each other and in a flash they split, going after a different cat.

Pein smirked from where he watched in the window with Konan at his side. "Now it has only begun." His face turned to a grim one as he looked at her. "And so has our research."

With a nod Konan followed Pein back to his study.

**Kyo's pov**

Kyo trailed behind the orange and turquoise cat with flawless speed. She was practically toe to toe with it. "Karin, go that way and let's corner it." She pointed to the right of her, talking to her sister.

She looked as her twin disappeared to ground level and rounded to the right. _Now let's time this perfectly..._

_Right. _she heard Karin think back at her.

Kyo counted to 3 as she made it even closer to the cat. _Now! _She made a big leap forward and knocked foreheads with Kiyoshi.

"Argh..." she groaned pulling back to pause and rubbed the center of her forehead. She looked over to Kiyoshi seeing he was doing the same. _The cat! _She looked to her left hearing a faint meow. The cat was perched on a tree top, did its kitten smirk again, and was gone in a flash.

She sighed looking at Kiyoshi. "Sorry, I didn't mean to run into you like that. I thought you were the cat."

Kyo shook her head. "It's mostly my fault. But let's go and catch it so we can head back to the base."

Kiyoshi nodded and zipped through the air with her. It was a mutual understanding between them to work together. Kyo knew that Kiyoshi understood the meaning of the mission so she wouldn't have to waist her time with explanations.

She just wondered how long this mission would truly last.

**Karin's pov**

Karin nodded and dropped down to ground level, dashing off to the right. _Now let's time this perfectly... _Kyo's voice rang out clearly in her head.

_Right. _came her response.

_Now! _

Karin then concentrated her chakra to her soles and ran up the side of the tree. _Got ya! _she thought launching forward with her arms out. She had her eyes locked on the bright red blur flashing forward. What she thought was a cat...turned out to be Hirota.

They blinked as they butted heads at an awkward angle: Hirota facing forward, eyes wide open; Karin running into the right of his body, arms open around him, one eye closed and smushed against the side of his face.

"Oh boy..." he said as they tipped over and fell downward.

Detangling themselves before they hit the ground, a tree branch, Hirota landed on the side of a tree before Karin who landed on a tree branch. "You got in my way kid! I had a perfect shot straight at the little booger and you blocked me!"

Hirota just stared at her with a blank glare. "You got in my way. I was right at the thing's tail when you knocked into the side of me."

She grumbled. "Whatever, where's Kyo." She jumped up from tree branch to tree branch to get to the top of the tree looking around. She saw a small figure of black and blue dashing over the tree tops in the distance. "Kyo!" she called but her twin didn't seem to hear.

She huffed. "Maybe if I reach out to her in her mind..."

Hirota was now standing on a tree top before her, look incredibly bored. "Look, the whole point of this test is to see how well we can work together. You just lost your original partner, and I just lost mine. The quicker we work together to get that stupid fur ball the faster we can get home and find out why Pein gave us this stupid test."

Karin looked at the boy. He raised a good point. She nodded, "Fine. Let's get a move on then."

Hirota nodded and they both hopped away chasing the crimson and white striped cat that disappeared around the bend.

**Illia's pov**

Illia's eyes narrowed in concentration as she tailed the all white cat with Shouta on her heels. They were running behind the cat when they heard voices coming towards them, one angry and a little pissed off, and the other childish like. She sighed knowing what to expect to see soon.

Emerging from the woods were Sora and Scarlett. Scarlett was yammering on and on about playing fun games and hoping they would stay as partners, while Sora was just pleading for her to go away.

Illia tried to steer clear of them but it was to no avail. Scarlett pointed them out and ran over. Illia noticed Shouta looking around for a way of escape, only she didn't see him actually leave because her sight was blocked by Scarlett. "Hi there! Would you like to join us in a game while we chase the cats?"

"No." came her answer flatly. She turned looking to Shouta but he was gone. So was Sora. Illia pinched the bridge of her nose and looked at Scarlett. "My dad did say we didn't **have **to work together right?" she asked and didn't wait for an answer. She just faced away. "Happy hunting on your own." And with that, she was gone.

**Sora's pov**

Sora sighed. She was grateful for Scarlett going to bug Illia for a moment; she was able to get away. Yeah she felt bad that Illia was now stuck with that but hey, she was off her back.

Then he remembered Shouta was with her too and she felt worse about leaving them with her now. She almost went back...**almost!**

Sighing she turned the corner around a tree and blinked seeing Shouta. "Hey, how'd you get separated from Illia?"

He blinked and looked over to her with his one visible eye and shrugged. "I bailed when I saw that weirdo coming my way. I figured Illia would too but I guess she didn't have enough time."

"Oh..." Sora said softly. "Well I'm sure either she left the freak by herself or got her to leave by now somehow so you can go and find her so you can continue searching together."

Shouta shook his head. "No, the Illia I know would just go on ahead without me and catch up with me later. And besides, this exercise is all about teamwork right? So maybe Illia decided to just ignore Scarlett and her weirdness and just get the job done with."

Sora blinked. He did make a point. "Okay...so if it's about teamwork and our partners just became partners, possibly, then that makes us..." she left the sentence hanging in the air for him to finish.

Shouta rolled his one visible blue eye. "Partners, duh."


	8. Seeing Red

**AN:: So sorry for the delay. A lot has been going down on my end of this virtual universe so updating had been put on hold. But antywhoo, here's the sixth chapter. Please enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or the Akatsuki or any of the OCs except Kyo. Karin belongs to my sissy Miss89. Hirota, Kiyoshi, Illia and the soon to join us Zero and Yami all belong to Rosebud130.

Chapter Six: Seeing Red

Illia's eyes stayed narrowed as she focused on the all white kitten prancing before her with a speed like nothing she'd ever seen before. It was a little hard to keep up with it because of its blinding speed, but lucky for her it was white and not brown and green or she would've definitely lost it.

With a blink of surprise, Illia dug her heels into the tree branch she was currently perched on and watched as the cat dropped to the ground below and continued to race on into the barren land before it.

When her father said before that the cats would run anywhere, he hadn't been joking.

Illia looked out at the drastic change from being surrounded by trees and grass to the sandy desserts of Sunagakure and sighed softly. This little cat chase was going to take longer than she expected.

Hopping down from the branch she sprinted off into the sand and ran quickly. Her running slowed to a light walk as she closed in on the village. She looked up at the sand colored buildings and wondered to herself if those buildings were actually made out of sand.

_Had I been running for a day…? _She silently mused to herself as she walked into the village seeing just about no one. The streets were deserted, no stores open, nothing.

_That's strange…_

As she walked through the village, she eventually sensed out the presences of other chakras and went to them, only from curiosity of course.

Illia peeked over the top of a building seeing everyone gathered around a burial site. She watched as seven leaf village ninja stood before the grave, heads bowed in respect for the fallen sand ninja. The Kazekage stood among them.

Illia's head tilted slightly and she leaned in a bit more as if to get a better look at him. Abruptly, a flash of white sparked past her and she was off. It's not that she had forgotten about the cat, she'd just gotten caught up in a moment of curiosity that she put her search on pause.

And she couldn't lie to herself, she was still curious.

Night time was falling now and Illia still hadn't caught that damned cat. Actually, she hadn't seen it since it gave her the slip after stealing her attention from the funeral earlier.

As of now, Illia was sitting outside of a spherical building in the center of the village, just hanging out there in the small space of the building wall between two windows with her eyes closed. She had to find a place to crash and fast before she passed out where she stood.

Just before she could jump off the building, the sudden spur of voices and the conversation wrapped in them made her stop short.

"Lady Chiyo died saving my life, I hardly find her an old bat of a shrew." One voice said. It was soft but yet rough all the same and it made her turn slightly.

"Yeah well that's evident, but still. I wouldn't completely approve of building a memorial for her, her history hardly deserves it." Another said.

The contrasting voice sighed and there was silence.

"What happened to you back there Lord Kazekage?"

"I had a wakeup call." He said simply and there was more silence, then a pair of footsteps leaving the room and the door closing.

Illia peeked inside of the window to find a fair large room with a wooden desk and a chair close to where she stood. The desk had one small stack of papers sitting on the right of it and someone was in the chair. Shaggy red hair peeked out at her from behind and she found herself glued there, hoping the boy in the chair would stand soon.

He did.

He stood and turned to the side, his eyes fixed on something on the wall next to him. Illia drank in his appearance and couldn't help but compare him to her favorite book character.

_I looked upon the face of my hero and couldn't help to gape in awe. He had creamy smooth skin cradled by messy locks that were a red bushy nest on his head, the hairstyle of someone who obviously doesn't bother with combing his hair daily._

He had shaggy, spiky brick red hair that contrasted drastically against his pale skin. It didn't look to Illia, though, like he didn't choose to comb his hair, it just fell that way.

_His eyes were as blue and clear as the purest babbling brook around. They were encased with dark circles, I guessed he didn't get much sleep. Maybe it was because of saving stupid girls who get themselves into danger at night time much like me._

His eyes definitely did have some clear blue eyes. So clear Illia didn't think he had a pupil at all. Dark circles weren't the best thing to describe the marks around his eyes. It almost looked like this guy liked wearing eyeliner…and a lot of it. However she could tell they had come from some sort of restlessness. She wondered if he just stayed up all night staring at things like he was now.

_His chiseled looks had a mark on them. A scar over his left eye, stretching down to his nose. The forever reminding mark of a heavy brawl._

Looking at him, Illia saw no marks or scars of any sort on his face, just a kanji tattoo. It was on the left side of his forehead and read love.

To sum it all up, he pretty much epitomized the guy from the book she loved so much, but his looks had a different twist to them, a strange twist. But that was okay…Illia liked strange.

Before she could look at his clothes, he turned around and she dropped to the ground below her. She darted around the nearest house corner and looked up at the now open window. The boy was looking out of it. After a moment, he stuck his head back inside and slid the window shut.

Illia let out a deep breath. She had almost been caught.

Straightening her shoulders, she set out to find an Inn to stay. She'd paid the owners enough for one night, letting them know that she may be here longer and she would pay them accordingly.

She grabbed a towel and headed for the Inn's hot springs for a bath, unaware of the person creeping in her room window.

**Hidan and Kakuzu**

Kakuzu looked as his daughter crept into the Inn window and shook his head. "That girl knows how to get under a person's skin doesn't she?" he said to no one in particular but of course Hidan would respond.

"Like her father, huh?" Kakuzu just looked at him blankly then looked back to the window.

"Nothing strange has been happening lately with these two children as of now," Kakuzu spoke completely disregarding Hidan's comment which pissed him off, "but only time will tell."

Hidan growled. "Who the fuck are you-"

Kakuzu pointed to the green and black plant man thing sprouting out of the roof between them, making Hidan jump in surprise. Zetsu ignored him and nodded. "I'll report it now and be back at the same time tomorrow to check in."

Kakuzu nodded and gave Hidan a sideways glance. "You would think that by you being an S-ranked criminal, you'd be a lot better at sensing out chakras of people, especially your teammates."

Hidan scoffed at him and rolled his eyes. "Whatever, just watch your little girl and look for any signs of her having a mental fit." Hidan then added under his breath "Other than the ones she already has…"

Kakuzu grunted in aggravation deep within his throat but said nothing and looked back into the room. He wondered to himself why Pein was telling them all to observe each child for any type of abnormalities. They seemed pretty normal to him.

But he'd just make sure to do like he's told. There was something urgent about Pein's voice when he'd said it, and he seemed worried and frightened as well. But maybe Kakuzu was just imagining things.

"And the show starts…" Hidan said sitting on the edge of the building's rooftop watching as Illia walked back into her room to find Scarlett jumping in her bed.

**Illia and Scarlett**

"What the…" Illia sighed pinching the bridge of her nose counting to 10 and closed her eyes. This could not be happening.

"I thought I lost you back in the Hidden Rain Village." She said bluntly running her fingers through her wet hair. She frowned mentally cursing her father for not letting them pack small bags of some sort to bring with them incase their journey did last longer than a day.

"Oh no, I just let you think you had. I'd been following you the whole time." Scarlett chirped in her chipper voice as she jumped around on the bed. "I would've thought they would have mats or something, you know like keep things traditional, but I guess these Inns shoot for comfort huh?"

"Why are you here?" Illia asked turning on her heels looking at the childish teen standing on her bed.

"Because we have to work in teams silly." She sat on the edge smiling creepily big at her. "It's like your dad said, the object of this game is teamwork. And I wanna catch that extra kitty and see what we get for it don't you?"

Illia was mulling things over in her mind as she talked. That is true, and she had the strangest feeling that she wouldn't be able to catch two cats on her own.

She sighed. "Fine…but bug me once too many times and you'll be wishing a cat comes by to grab my attention."

Scarlett's face went blank as she stared at her then she broke into a giggle fit, falling over and grabbing her sides. "You're funny! This is gonna be fun!"

Illia rolled her eyes. "Just get some rest…we start searching bright and early." And on that note, Illia got into bed and went to sleep.

"Still nothing." Illia frowned as she stopped on the Kazekage tower and looked out over the village not sensing the cat's chakra anywhere. She and Scarlett had split up, searching the village separately to cover more ground quickly, but Illia was certain that she hadn't found anything either.

She sighed turning on her heels to search on the other side, but stopped frozen in place and what was before her.

The guy from the funeral, the boy from last night, the Kazekage, her character incarnate, stood before her with his arms crossed over his chest. He was dressed in full-length dark trousers with a pair of laces on each leg, a long-sleeved crimson coat with flaring hemlines at the front and back, a grey holster vest held in place by a single strap over his left shoulder and two buckled belts carrying the gourd on his back. Over all this he wore the black Kazakage tunic robes. On his feet were of course the standard Sunagakure Shinobi sandals.

"From the looks of your clothes alone I can tell that you're not from this Village." His voice rang out smooth and clear, much like she'd heard it last night, but there was something about it…when it was directed towards her… "Normally I would ignore any other villagers if they were just passing through or taking a look around, but I have a feeling you're not just looking around or passing through. You're looking for something, and I'm here to make sure it's not trouble."

Illia just looked at him. He suspected her of snooping around his village, possibly being a spy of some sort. She kept her cool composure, the one she'd learned from watching her dad and mom, or maybe the one she inherited from her dad and mom, and said simply, "I can assure you that I'm not here to cause any trouble at all. I am looking for something but it won't take me long to find it. And when I do I'll be out of your village as soon as possible."

The man in red and black just looked back at her, much like she was looking at him. With that stare, she wondered why it was that someone gave up their life to save his. What did he do, besides being the Kazakage of course, deserved something like that? She turned her back to him and was preparing to jump but he stopped her again.

"You were outside my office window last night, looking in." he said in that soft-rough tone of his.

Illia's eyes widened. She didn't think he caught her. Or at least it didn't seem like she'd been caught. She looked at him over her shoulder and shrugged, beginning to say something but yet again, the third time in a row, she was stopped.

Scarlett appeared beside her grinning like usual. "I saw the cat but I lost it when I passed by a candy store."

Illia face palmed herself and shook her head preparing to fuss but blinked seeing the way she was staring at the Kazakage. "That hair…and that…cloak…it makes me…it makes me…it makes me…" her voice grew lower and lower as she spoke, her smile fading.

The red headed boy unfolded his arms slowly as he watched.

Illia blinked looking at her. "What? Spit it out already."

They both looked as Scarlett's pupils dilated, the green no longer visible."It makes me crazy!" she growled in that husky voice of hers when she gets pissed but this time it was a little different. It sounded as though someone else was talking with her as well with a voice about a pitch higher than hers. Scarlett charged for him and Illia as well as the Kazakage looked at her in shock.

"Scarlett! Stop!"

**AN: Sorry for the cliffhanger! Okay not really…Mwhahahaha! But anyway review and give me feedback please! Now on to the next team! **


	9. Victory In Our Laps

**AN: Hi everyone! So I'm totally digressing from the purpose of this chapter but yeah, I just took a two and a half days long road trip/move from one extreme of the U.S.  
(south) all the way to the other (north). Being cramped in the back seat on the right side of a car seat with a raging one year old yelling and scratching at me…so much FUN! Really it was great! ….is anyone catching my sarcasm? I pray you are because if you aren't…well you are the weakest link. Anyway, on to the fic. **

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or the Akatsuki or any of the OCs except Kyo. Karin belongs to my sissy Miss89. Hirota, Kiyoshi, Illia and the soon to join us Zero and Yami all belong to Rosebud130.

Chapter Seven: Victory In Our Laps

Sora walked through the trees with her arms behind her neck, looking at the sky. "Why are we not racing off like the others again?"

Shouta was just looking around, sort of peeping around actually, "Because, slow and steady wins the race."

"Ahh…" Sora said back softly but sighed inwardly. This was going to take foooorrrreeeeeverrrrr!

Don't get it twisted; she didn't mind being partnered up with Shouta, actually she quiet enjoyed it. He had been the first friend she made since she arrived at the base and he'd been really nice to her even after that ordeal with his best friend over her books, which she still stands firm in saying that she hadn't done that, but he believed her too and that had made her happy.

But now as they eased their way through the competition of finding the kittens, she couldn't help but get a little bored. She wanted the thrill of chasing behind the sure to be cunning creature and getting frustrated by losing it when they got so close. But no…Shouta wanted to take his time looking around because "slow and steady wins the race".

She sighed again.

Hadn't Pein said something about the cats maybe going to other villages? Oh no. what would they do then? Just mosey around for days upon days until they found one? Sora would be at least the twins age by then at the rate they were going now.

The two traveled around and around slowly for hours and it was now night fall. The two youngsters were now getting tired and weary from their slow walking which is sort of odd because, well…THEY WERE JUST WALKING LIKE THEY WERE CRUISING THROUGH THE PARK!

Shouta decided to just camp out in the woods where they were. He hadn't want to at least try and see if they'd left their village and if so what village they were in now. He didn't want to see if there was an inn close by that the two could crash at. He just wanted to lie right here in the dirt and grass under the trees and stars, and Sora…was okay with that!

She usually camped out all the time after long days of working on her sculptures and watching them burst shortly afterwards. She loved to look up at the night sky at all the stars and imagine that she was one of those brightly burning stars, floating high above all the disapproving eyes she had to face every day because of her hands. She envisioned herself not having a care in the world just floating around making little clay figures and watching them explode, making more big and bright stars to keep her company and love her for who she is and what she can do.

"What are you thinking about?" Shouta's soft voice next to her jolted her away from her star filled abyss.

She looked over at him to see his one visible blue eye was fixed on her, filled with curiosity.

Sora could do nothing but stare for a moment and take his expression in. that was a new one. She couldn't recall the last time anyone ever looked at her like, like they actually _cared _about what she had to say. Like _he _cared about what she had to say.

She looked back to the sky. "In my old village before I came here, I would always lie under the stars and look at them, imagining that I was one of them, high above the world with no worry or care about what the other villagers thought about me and my abilities…to be around others who don't care about that but can see beyond the mouths in my hands into my heart…to not find them repulsive but cool."

"I think they're cool." Came his response and Sora felt something on her hand, wiggling it's way between her palm and fingers then enclosing around her hand. It was Shouta's hand. He reached out and took her hand in his. Sora looked at their hands then at him to find him lying on his side facing her, eye closed. "But…I'm not wearing any gloves…doesn't it feel weird? Nasty? Repulsive?"

He shook his head at each word and gave her an encouraging smile and squeeze of her hand. "It's okay…like I said, I think they're cool."

Sora felt herself smile slowly and with a nod she turned over to face him, "Thank you." She whispered it lightly to the now asleep boy-no friend-next to her but knew it didn't fall on deaf ears because he smiled a little in his sleep.

She too, closed her eyes going to sleep.

**The members watching**

"Aww! Look! Toby's son and Deidara-sempai's daughter like each other!" Toby yelled bouncing around like the idiot he is.

"Shut it you idiot! They'll hear you!" the other yelled capturing him in a headlock and holding him there firmly.

He continued to look out at the two children as Toby made weak and fail attempts to break loose and make more noise, most likely whining at him for doing such a thing to a 'good boy' like Toby. Just the thought made Deidara roll his eyes.

Deidara looked at his daughter, trying to look for what Pein told him to look for. He even looked at Shouta as well. He didn't think he had to look at Shouta because he'd been at the base for all this time, but still you never know.

Deidara didn't find anything out of the ordinary, as of yet anyway.

He let Toby go and Toby took a deep breath getting prepared to let Deidara have it, but he stopped him. "Damn it Toby say one more word and I'll shove my foot so far up your ass you'll be choking on the taste of mud foot sweat and leather for months!" he quietly hissed at his partner.

Toby just blinked and deflated. "Toby will be quiet…Toby is a good boy."

Deidara glared, "He had damn well better be."

The next morning, Sora woke up to find that she and Shouta were still holding hands, and something was going from licking her face to tickling it with something as soft as a feather.

She opened her eyes with a slight sleepy groan to see what had awaken her. A sky blue cat with blonde eyes was going back and forth from licking her face to Shouta's.

Sora sat up more and the kitten jumped into her lap. She smiled. They caught their cat! No their cat just came and jumped into their laps, literally!

She shook Shouta awake with great urgency. He was reluctant to come around but did so eventually and when he did he was not disappointed. "YEAH! I told you! I TOLD YOU! Taking your time pays off." He picked up the kitten and rubbed its head. It purred and nuzzled into Shouta's touch and he smiled more. "Come on, let's go back to the base."

This time, Shouta sprung into the air to leap through the trees. Sora followed soon behind. Turns out, they hadn't left the village at all! They were really just a few yards away from the base it just seemed like they'd gotten further with all their walking.

She and Shouta looked around and cheered. "Our cat came to us _and _we're the first ones back? We must be getting some kind of prize for this!"

Sora giggled nodding, "I agree!"


End file.
